"I am the resurrection and the life...."
What separated Pharisees from Saducees, among other things, was belief in the resurrection of the dead. At the judgment, at the end of this age, the Pharisees (and probably a majority of Jesus' Jewish contemporaries) believed that the dead would rise and be judged. Mary believes like her contemporaries. In Christian doctrine, we call this teaching the "General Resurrection" . As the Westminster Larger Catechism says, "at the last day, there shall be a general resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust" (Book of Confessions - 7.197).
Jesus wants to clarify this final resurrection for her and for us. When we believe in Jesus, the resurrection and the life, "the bodies of the just, by the Spirit of Christ, and by virtue of his resurrection as their head, shall be raised in power, spiritual, and incorruptible, and made like to his glorious body" (BoC - 7.197). Good news indeed!
Yet when Jesus spoke of eternal life, he spoke of more than life after death or the final resurrection. Jesus spoke of the eternal life that begins now! If we have eternal life, what does that mean for the way we live today? Does what we do today have an impact on eternity?
(Click here to read more from the Book of Confessions on PDF)
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